Purdue at Connecticut: 5 Things to Look For

Another opportunity for a win is on the horizon.

1. An energized Connecticut Team – I do believe that we will see Connecticut’s best effort Saturday Afternoon. The coach has resigned, who I have been told was kind of a major butt head. The quarterback has been benched and the interim coach has to be planning that he is going to pull all of the tricks out of his bag. Sometimes you see a team rally around an interim coach who players have leaned on during tough times. I think that may be the case, but still will not be enough for the Huskies.
2. Purdue to establish the run – Holy Cross ran all over UConn, totaling over 250 yards on the ground. Purdue failed to break 100 last week with the running backs, but Coach Brohm did stay committed to the run game, as Zander Horvath had over 20 carries, in recent years he would have bailed on it. I think we will see a similar plan with the run game but will have much more success against a smaller UConn defensive Line. I think we get close to 200 yards rushing in our pass first offense.
3. George Karlaftis – Big George failed to get a sack last week, but he did have 8 QB hurries and multiple hits on the quarterback. The new defensive coordinators schemed George in well and used his strengths to impact the game. The best pass defense is a good pass rush. I think we get much of the same this week, as our future first round pick will continue to dominate.
4. Jack Plummer to Payne Durham Connection – A few things were obvious last week. One, David Bell is great. Two, the connection between Payne Durham and Jack Plummer is a tight one. Jack looked for Payne on crucial plays all second half and Payne delivered. The week 1 Mackey Award winner has put the B1G on notice, he will be one of the best tight ends in the conference. Coach Brohm loves his tight ends too.
5. Special Teams Creativity – We saw a punt pinned at the 1 yard line. We saw a kicker perfect for the game. We saw a perfectly ran fake field goal that ended up as a dropped pass to an interception. Could we see more of this during week 2? I think so, Special Teams Coach, Marty Biagi has now had a full spring and off-season with his units. He ran plenty of tricks at North Texas before coming to Purdue. I hope we see more.